Monday, May 19, 2014

Press Release: DEA Implicated in NSA Program to Record Every Cell Phone Conversation in Bahamas

DEA
IMPLICATED IN NSA PROGRAM TO RECORD EVERY CELL PHONE CONVERSATION IN
BAHAMAS

Investigation
Suggests DEA Using Drug Kingpins as Excuse to Broadly Monitor All Private
Cell Communications in At Least Five Countries

The
newest revelations emerging from an investigation spurred by documents released
by Edward Snowden suggest that the NSA is using DEA access to wiretaps to record
personal information in several foreign countries, including recording every
cell phone conversation to, from, and within the Bahamas, a democratic ally that
appears not to have knowledge of or have consented to the plan and that has
national laws specifically forbidding such interference. And that the NSA lied
to Congress about the extent of the program.

In
an amazing story by The Intercept,
authorsRyan
Devereaux,Glenn
GreenwaldandLaura
Poitras explore SOMALGET, a subset of MYSTIC, an NSA program to monitor
telecommunications around the globe, including Mexico, the Philippines, Kenya, and another
nation left unnamed for fear of instigating violence, a group of countries
representing more than 250 million people. The story is reminiscent of an investigation
by Reuters last year showing agencies sharing information in a tactic called
"parallel construction" to obscure the origins of information in criminal
trials, tying the hands of defense attorneys.

The
authors fear that if the NSA is using lawful intercepts made by the DEA under
the auspices of intercepting the communications of specific drug kingpins to
record the conversations of every private citizen in that country, it could
seriously imperil foreign cooperation in international law enforcement efforts
that may be needed in the fight against international terrorism and other
concerns.

“DEA
is actually one of the biggest spy operations there is,” said Finn Selander, a
retired DEA special agent and Law Enforcement Against Prohibition speaker is
quoted as saying in the article. “Our mandate is not just drugs. We collect
intelligence.”

Adding insult to injury, in a story not unsurprising
to those familiar with the way drug prosecutions are run, the information
obtained does not even seem to be being used against the dangerous drug kingpins
and those who enable them one would hope would provide some justification for
such efforts. Instead, according to the authors, “an internal NSA
presentation from 2013 recounts with pride how analysts used SOMALGET to locate
an individual who ‘arranged Mexico-to-United States marijuana shipments’ through
the U.S. Postal Service.”

Law
Enforcement Against Prohibition is a group of law enforcement officials who,
after fighting in the front lines of the war on drugs, now advocate for its end.